Thousands of votes cast in state primary ruled invalid

Rachel La Corte, The Associated Press

Published 10:00 pm, Friday, February 8, 2008

OLYMPIA -- Thousands of ballots being cast in Washington's presidential preference primary are invalid because voters aren't signing a ballot oath identifying themselves as a Democrat or a Republican, Secretary of State Sam Reed said Friday.

Reed said that while some people may just forget to do it, or may be purposefully skipping voting in the presidential race and voting on special elections being held in 36 of the state's 39 counties, he thinks many are protesting the requirement that they declare themselves loyal to a party for the Feb. 19 primary election.

"I think this is really indicative of the attitude of Washington state voters, who are these populist voters who refuse, as a matter of principle, to be put in that box," he said.

In King County, elections spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said that of the 120,000 ballots returned so far, between 20 percent and 25 percent did not check the appropriate box on the back and sign the oath "either because voters forgot, or in protest."

Egan said each voter received an insert with each ballot that explained the rules.

"We wanted to make sure voters understood this was a unique election and there were specific rules to follow," she said.

"For some voters, it's not about following instructions, it's that they're angry about the rules over the presidential primary," Egan added.

Under state party rules, primary voters must pick one party's ballot and sign an oath that they consider themselves a member of that party and haven't attended the other party's caucus.

Democrats will allocate 78 of their elected "pledged" national delegates through their caucus Saturday. The party views the primary as a nonbinding popularity contest and won't use it to allocate delegates.

Republicans will use the primary results to allot 19 of their 37 elected "pledged" delegates, with the others coming from Saturday's caucus.

Voters who don't want to pick a party can still have their ballot counted for local issues, such as school levies.